Alexander’s expression was a smile.
Adrien put his hand on Gadin’s chest and let a little confidence flow into him.
“Are you Vulcan?” Gadin asked him. “Do Ahleth look like Vulcan?”
Adrien smiled, pressed a little on Gadin’s chest.
“Are you tired, Gadin?” Adrien asked him.
“It’s been a long day,” Gadin said in something like a stupor. “We had sex and she is good at it probably learned it from her mother though I can’t believe I’m saying that then—then a space ship picked us up and some dude killed a man and we’re flying through hostile space to nowhere—”
“It’s peaceful,” Adrien said, quieting him. “Then 40 winks might sound nice right about now.”
Gadin’s eyes glassed over, and he fell to sleep.
“I could have just had sex with him again,” Marie offered.
Hanah and Wood chuckled. Wood coughed into his hand.
“It might have embarrassed him,” Lori said.
“Why?” Marie asked.
“She was a dog,” Cory said to Oliver.
“What do I know? I was spayed!”
Eleven minutes later, their speed slowed as they approached L4. The little dot showing their progress on the flight path moved the last bit toward their destination.
“I don’t see anything,” Wood said. “It’s just black out there.”
“Gene?” Ella said through Bessie.
The voice that responded was deep and vibrant, sounding neither male nor female. “Bessie has introduced you. Welcome back. It has been 1026.327 cycles of this sun since you were last here.”
“But where are you?” Cory asked.
No ship was visible, though stars were blanked as if there were nothing around them.
“Hello, Gene,” Adrien said. “2 shuttles to board. Open hatch 2?”
A sliver of light appeared ahead, grew into a wider sliver to reveal a large hangar bay, bright, surrounded by blackness in the void of space.
The two shuttlecrafts entered and sat down.
The door behind them closed.
CHAPTER
27
Mel rolled off Nicki to lie in his motel room’s queen-sized bed next to her.
“No! My God, stay!” Nicki said to him, rolling onto her side onto his shoulder, his arm still under her head. She reached under the sheets for him, but he moved her hand up to his chest.
She played with his chest hair, there.
“I gotta rest, hon,” Mel said.
“We’re only 20.”
“I know, but I never was much good past twice, and I still ain’t I guess. Were you gay before?”
“No,” she said. “I have no idea. I never thought so.”
“Well, you’re into men, now.”
“You have no idea—I had no idea.”
She reached up to kiss him briefly on the mouth.
Mel squeezed her shoulder, squeezed her tight into his side for a hug.
“But this body,” Nicki said, “is so— I don’t know. But it needs you. Your whole— The whole you— It’s like I know what you can do for me, and you can, and it’s completely different—nothing like before, but it’s driving me crazy and I gotta—”
Mel laughed at her.
“It’s not funny!” She slapped him on the chest. “I had no idea how this felt!”
“Think you can keep it together for this afternoon?”
“I’m ready right now!”
“I mean, we got the quick draw competitions at 3:00. If you’re not pregnant, you gonna do it?”
“I don’t think I can. No way.” She reached for under the sheets for him again, and he let her.
“Well, I gotta do it. I wanna get me another one of them trophies for the mantle. Come with me.”
“Okay!” She reached up to kiss him again.
“Mind yourself, girl!” Mel as Horny Toad Callahan walked down the dirt street past the stage coach, keeping his girlfriend at bay with a straight arm. He wore just one six-gun on his right hip, fully loaded, slung low.
Nicki as Sexy Britches walked beside him, in a frontier-style dress she’d bought, but without any guns.
“We got men’s work today,” Mel said.
“Give me something! You’re killing me!” Nicki said to him.
“I gave you three.”
Nicki dropped into a kneeling position, her dress filling the ground around her. She moved her hands to her face, flushed.
Mel stopped walking and looked at her.
“You’re a sad case!” he said to her, but she didn’t seem to hear him. “Look,” he said.
No response from her.
He bent over to hold her forearms, half-lifting her into a standing position. “How’s this?” he said, kissing her warmly on the lips.
She kissed him back like a bride on her wedding night.
People on wooden sidewalks and crossing the street stopped to applaud. Some jeered in fun. Some laughed.
Two cowboys by the saloon watched. “That girl is Sassy Britches? She was a man until yesterday?”
“Yup,” said Jarod.
“Is that gay?” said Jeff.
“Outa be,” said Jarod.
“Think they’d mind?” said Jeff.
Jarod looked around at the faces of others.
Two ladies crossing the street smiled at the lovers.
Cowboys all around smiled. Comments seemed in fun, pleasant. Nothing negative.
Jarod looked at Jeff. “You know, to hell with them if they do.” He turned Jeff to face him, and kissed him warmly on the mouth just as Horny and Sexy were doing.
Jeff’s cowboy hat fell off, and slowly his arms came up to encircle Jarod’s head for a long, loving smooch.
There was a brief pause before one cowboy nearby erupted. “Holy cow, Fang! You is gay?”
“Gay cowboys!”
“Brokeback Mountain!”
“Is that what we’re supposed to do now?” another asked.
One cowboy took off his hat and hit himself in the leg with it in disgust. “Well, I am depressed. I ain’t got me no cowboy friend! Faggots!”
All four of the lovers stopped kissing at that remark and looked.
“Henry Wage-earner, you old stick in the mud,” the sheriff said, approaching the bigot. “What the hell you thought—all cowboys are straight!? In this day and age? Ain’t no body could really be that effing stupid.”
“But they’re both men!” Henry said. “And these two over here— That one was a man.”
The sheriff shook his head. “Some people is—idgits,” he said. “Dragons is so stupid.”
Henry looked to nearby cowboys and cowgirls for support, but they all seemed to support the Sheriff.
“You gonna arrest me, Sheriff?” Henry asked.
“I should— No, hell— Yes I will, dangit! Gimme that gunbelt!”
People around them chuckled at Henry.
“It ain’t a real jail, Jim,” Henry said. “And you ain’t a real sheriff.”
The sheriff pointed to the right.
Henry looked to see a cowboy leaning on the porch post in front of the bank. “The Match Master?” Henry asked the Sheriff. “What of it?”
“I can kick troublemakers out of this match, is what,” the Match Master said.
The sheriff pointed at Henry’s gun belt. “Gimme it!”
Henry hung his head and gave the sheriff his gun rig, his six gun still in it.
“Now go ahead on—git your sorry ass over there in that jail,” the sheriff said.
Cowboys and cowgirls around applauded.
Jarod stood smiling with his arm around Jeff’s waist.
Mel stood smiling with his arm around Nicki.
“I ain’t never been in jail before,” Henry said to the sheriff as he walked.
“From some of the other stuff you’ve said, I think maybe you should have.”
The bathroom monitor at the movies blew his new lifeguard whistle at t
he crowd! “Now hold on!”
People disregarded him and went to the bathroom in whichever one they seemed to want.
“You’re a man!” the monitor souted to someone who walked past him. “You’re just a man, and that’s the ladies’ room!”
CHAPTER
28
Once onboard the mother ship, and to the 1st Centuries’ amazement, Adrien recommended everyone get some sleep.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Gadin exclaimed.
“He’s kidding,” Oliver said.
“No way!” Hanah said.
Wood was in complete agreement. “Oh, no. I— I couldn’t sleep right now— On this huge, magnificent ship!?”
They were standing on Gene’s bridge with the most amazing HUD, perhaps 40 feet tall and 100 feet wide, arranged in the familiar semi-circle around them, displaying, somehow, the entire region of space, including the moon and earth, but also, somehow, close-ups of areas of both, even images of some of the earth’s satellites in orbit.
Adrien held up his hands. “It’s important,” he said. “We’re—all of us—only human. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow, and we need to be fresh.”
“What if the ship blows a fuse?” Gadin asked. “What if it gets a virus, and we get struck up here? We’re way out here!”
Ella sneered at him. “What if the earth gets hit by a comet and they’re all killed, and we’re spared because we’re up here? It’s more likely.”
“But I saw Apolo 13,” Gadin said. “And it happens in Star Trek all the time—disasters of every kind.”
“Spock was raised from the dead,” Ella said.
Gadin’s eyes widened. “Do you know him, too?”
“You could stimulate us for tomorrow,” Oliver said. “Keep us awake. Like you helped Gadin sleep. I mean, we gotta see this ship!”
Adrien shook his head. “Not as good as genuine sleep.”
“But it’s not possible to sleep now,” Cory said. “Biologically—we’re gassed. This ain’t gonna happen.”
Lori nodded to them. “It’s okay. You go into your quarters, and when you’re ready to sleep, tell Gene. Just speak up. And she’ll make you sleep.”
“I’ll wake us in the morning, if you’re not already awake,” Ella said. “Good night.” She walked off the bridge, presumably to her own room.
“Gene,” Adrien said to the air. “Will you show people to their rooms?”
“Sure.” A holographic guide appeared near each of the 1st Centuries and beconed them to follow.
“You’ll wake us up early?” Oliver asked. “So we can spend some time here?”
Gene answered them in her neither-male-nor-female voice: “Yes.”
Adrien looked at Lori. “You want to go ahead, Lori?”
Lwaxana, in Lori’s compound on Earth, woke from a deep sleep. Lights flashed through it, and a holo-screen appeared, displaying several matrices.
Lori stood in Gene’s central transmutation station before a transmuter crowded on one side by rows of crystals.
“Bring up Lwaxana’s matrix, Gene.” She moved her hands over crystals and through the air to see symbols mirror on a holoscreen across a far wall. “Adjust to match.”
“Lwaxana, can you hear me?”
After a 2.72 second pause, Lwaxana responded. “Yes. I can hear you.”
“We’re attempting to reset all the transmuters on Earth. Have we learned why they corrupted?”
“No, I have not. Gene?”
“I do not know where the flaws came from, but I can reset them all with the correct parameters per Lwaxana’s original design for them,” Gene said.
“Good,” Lori said. “How?”
Gene answered. “I can design a pattern, wipe them, and reload.”
“Lwaxana, too?” Lori asked.
“No. She and the few others I see of Ahleth are not corrupted. They have the full system, and they are protected.”
“Thank God for small favors,” Lwaxana said.
“But the derivitives are unsafe and need to be rebooted.”
“A flaw?” Lwaxana asked.
“No. A clever intrusion,” Gene confirmed.
“How long will it take?” Lori asked.
“About an hour,” Gene said. “I cannot know for sure, as some manufacture has not been yours.”
“You can reach them all from here?” Lori asked.
“I could piggy back earth-based satellites, but I think it would be better for me to develop a virus that will go into the earth’s internet, seek out and correct the transmuters, and stay in the system to correct any future corruptions.”
“How long to develop the virus,” Lori asked.
Gene paused for 0.00734 seconds. “It is complete.”
“You mind?” Lori asked Gene. “Lwaxana, can you confirm effectiveness of that virus?”
Lwaxana paused for 0.23 seconds, plus 2.52 seconds for speed of light turn-around time. “That’s like asking a student to check Feynman’s math, but yes, it appears correct.”
“Glad to hear it,” Gene said.
“Ella? It’s ready,” Lori said.
Ella came back without hesitation. “Then initiate.”
“Go ahead—” Lori attempted to tell Gene to do it, but Gene interrupted her.
“It’s initiated.”
In her private quarters at the White House, and even though it was closed, Cadence’s laptop beeped.
Cadence’s eyebrows raised. She opened the laptop, and Lori’s Skype was on it.
“Madam President?”
“Yes?”
“We’ve initiated a correction from this end for all transmuters. The fix will not be immediate, but it should all be done in about an hour. I’ve arranged for you to speak directly with Lwaxana if you choose to confirm them, once they’re repaired, but it’s not necessary.”
“How do I contact her?” Cadence asked.
“Just call the compound and ask for her. They’ll put you in touch with her—like as if she were a corporeal human.”
“She can skype?”
Lori smiled. “Can Bob Hope laugh?”
“You mean could he?” Cadence asked.
Lori’s smile looked real, yet tired. “He still does.”
When Lori entered her quarters the room illuminated to a moderate amount, as she had indicated in the past.
She said nothing, stood and looked at the room: a simple bed, a table, a few chairs around it, blank walls, an alcove to the left. The whole room was less than a 12x24 foot span. There were no windows, no obvious lights.
“Would you like to dress for bed?” Gene asked.
Lori’s face sagged. She bowed her head a little, and raised her arms. Her clothes dissolved into the form of a night gown.
She walked as if in a daze to the alcove, where she was cleansed. Her hair, her body, her nightgown, all fresh as if cleansed in the purest water and dried with the finest cotton towel.
She looked at the room, and a tear fell down her cheek.
She shook her head in sadness.
“John,” she said in the simplest terms.
An entire wall became a silent video of John playing with Marie on the beach.
“Mom?” Lori heard spoken to her through the door’s announcer. “You in there?”
Lori nodded and the door to her room opened. Marie entered and stared at the video, her mom sitting with tears.
“Come here, sweetie,” Lori said.
Marie went over and sat on her mother’s lap.
Lori hugged her tightly.
“I’ve always loved you,” Lori said to her. “You remember our first meeting?”
Marie shook her head. “I was too young?”
Lori hugged her more tightly. “You were this little thing—big head, big feet, and this little, tiny but. Your tail had been bobbed.”
Marie hugged her mother back.
“I found you at a friend’s, a breeder. You were from Kansas, but this breeder had you for sale—God, it scare
s me to think you could have been adopted by someone else. Then I’d never have known you. You mean so much.
“I had to make you!” Lori told her. “When your father died, I—” Lori cried some more. “And now coming here, it hits me home. I was so lonely. I’d been stealth for so long. You can’t connect very well with people, when you’re under cover.”
Marie patted her mother on the head.
Lori chuckled at her and reached up to pat Marie on the head, too—bent her over to kiss her on top the head, like she always did.
“That vid is a good recreation,” Marie said, referring to the wall.
Lori nodded. “Gene, will you show them walking? Show Marie running out in front?”
The wall image changed to show John walking with Marie running out ahead 50 feet, then running side to side.
Marie giggled. “I was just having fun.”
“Yes, but your breeding had you—”
“Flushing birds, I know,” Marie said.
The image changed to show Marie running back to John, jumping up at the last second for him to catch her in his arms, getting knocked backward onto the sand, Marie breaking free to run circles around him.
“Where did I get all that energy?” Marie asked.
“You were young.”
“Lori?” the door announcer asked. It was Cory.
Lori nodded and the door opened again.
Both Cory and Gadin entered.
Lori wiped her face in her hands.
“I thought you looked a little down,” Cory said.
The two of them took a seat near Lori. Marie got off Lori’s lap and took another seat, as well.
“So I brought this.” Cory showed them a bottle of champagne. “Gene gave it to me.”
“No telling what she has stored in her memory banks,” Gadin said.
“Like this bottle of champagne. I’d swear I just got it from the Faculty Club. Nice bottle.” Cory tapped on the bottle with his knuckles.
“But pitty,” Gadin said. “We can’t drink it. No cups.”
“From the bottle!” Cory began working the wire on the cork.
Four cups appeared before them on the table.
“Gene! One of my new best friends!” Gadin said. “There is no way I could sleep up here.”
“Yes, there is,” Gene said.
“In a bit then?” Gadin asked. “Not now?”
“I could have some, too,” Marie said.
Lori started to object. “You’re too—”
“No, she’s not,” Gadin said. “Too late for that.”